Acting Commissioner's Introduction, Vital Statistics and Communicable Diseases TPHE Annual Report of the Public Health Department of the Shanghai Municipal Council is covered by Dr. E. P. Duck, Acting Commissioner in a series of five articles, the first of which is appended.
In his introduction to the report Dr. Duck states:—In spite of highly abnormal factors during the latter half of the year, health conditions for 1937 may be considered, on the whole, have been satisfactory.
Up to the middle of August, routine health measures were followed as in former years, and owing to the prevailing necessity for economy no important new ventures were embarked upon.
When hostilities broke out the} be attributed to the overcrowding of eyartments. activities wore in! rehigees providing a most favourable Pediately" concentrated "on the sell for this. extremely Crnciniion of homely and other alsease, essential services from the dangerous Malaria areas. and. on various other urgent Contrary to expectations, malaria matters which arose from day to day decreased considerably in comparison as.a result of the complete disruption with last Year's figures. Though routine work.
Goubt the activities of the Depart. Thereafter, the remaining months ment's Malaria Prevention Unit con-of the year were occupied in an ad~ tributed towards this result, it Justment to altered conditions and possible that the interruption of a gradual re-establishment of normal Rotifeation may also have played a routine wherever possible. part, as it is otherwise dimeult to Several interesting and unusual exp in. how. the disease was not problems presented themselves, in-Introduced by Tefugees known to Gluding the cleansing of premises Inave come from malarious areas. containing decomposed foodstuffs the Hospitals collection. and cremation of corpses, the production of smoke helmets for the Department's Hospitals essential services and civilian use were situated in areas which were andthe manufacture of tear gas the scene of hostilities, and had to be bombs for the Police Force. evacuated. The staff concerned experienced a very diffeult time and Vitat Siatisties common with the staffs of the Veterinary Division and other out-Owing to the mass movements of the Chinese population in the Shang~ door units, were fortunate in eseaphal area, resulting from hostilities, ing with a very few minor casualties. and "the' evacuation of the major Refugee Camps portion of the foreign population, the The influx, of refugees created 2 Ciimated death rates and birth rates. separate problem of Its own. Fort-cannot be considered accurate, How-Urately, However, Dr, R. C. Robert-fever, the actual number of 35,171 ton, of the Lester Institute of Chinese deaths recorded represents Metical Research, volunteered at the a 100 per cent Increase over the uitset to take charge of: the camps corresponding figure for last year, end refugee matters generally. violence and communicable diseases him are due special thanks for intaking a predominating place among. stituting organised control in this ascertainable causes. Exposed corpses Tespects thereby considerably relieve accounted for nearly 0 per cent. of Ing the Department of an addition Chinese deaths, a notably high pro-Dutden at a tue when it was alread portion, fully occupied "with other problems.
Communteable Diseases Miscellaneous The diseases which attained serious proportions were cholera and dysen-Although communication with {ery In the late summer, and measles Shanghai, was not possible of one: in the autumn. Diphtheria was rather period, the Mercy Hospital for mental Patients continued to function, and smore. prevalent than usual through= iter hostilities had moved West of out the year, whilst the incidence of Minghong the transportation (uphold "fever rose sharply during October and, November. patients from the Settlement was Commenced by arrangement with the With the influx of so many thou Sepanese military authorities. sands of Tofugees during August, an 'The Leprosarium at Da Zang was increase in infectious diseases gen evacuated before heavy fighting took erally was feared, but it might be place in that neighbourhood, and pointed out in this' respect that milita foper patients were housed tem-operations could have comenced at _much more unfavourable porarily in premises attached to the Chung San Hospital at Feng Ling. Hime, for example, in June or July, Ghigo, At a later date a second when cholera normally begins, for in fevaewation, became necessary, and the winter months, when the diseases. the lepers are now accommodated in of cold weather and over-crowding.
prone to make their appearance separate quarters adjoining a Re-Furthermore, there is no doubt. thi fugee Camp in Ferry Road—the most the maintenance of the water supply satisfactory atvangement that could bbe devised in existing circumstances. by the Shanghai Waterworks Comp~ any was most fortunate, ax any terruption. would. surely have reflected in the Health returns.
'Thanks are due to the Health Bureaux of rcighbouring Munieipall-Cholera es, the International Red Cross, the Cholera, having been absent for China Medical Association and' the four consecutive years, re-appeared Ulility Compa: nes to mention only a few of the organizations which rend-\during the last week of August. The Shanghat outbreak was preceded by ered. most valuable cooperation. thers at Hoihow Canton, Hongkong, Space does not permit the enumera-Hankow, Amoy and Swatow in. that tion of all the voluntary workers who order, Ningpo, Nanking and Hang-offered their services during the chow' recorded their first cases at Emergency, but one could not con-fater dates. Though the order in clude these remarks without a note which "the various towns were of acknowledgment to the affected and the time lag between Tnstitute of Medical Research tench successive outbreak were such the National Quarantine Service, that a-spread of the infection from whose voluntary staff proved of the one primary focus appears to be the Greatest assistance. Some of the most" reasonable explanation, the: doctors concerned were still perform possibility that outbreaks occurred {ng various duties for the Depart Tidependently.in several places canment at the end of the year. hot entirely be ruled out, Particular Ty. is this 0 tu, the case of Shanghai, Communicable Diseases Where the first ease was not detected Notifcations.—In the absence of: Until eleven days after the outbreak compulsory registration of medical hostilities, during which time practitioners, this work is consider-there was a general efflux of popula-ably handicapped, and the only tion. from Shanghai, and the pos-sources of Information are the death sibility of the introduction of the returns and voluntary notifeations disease: from without, except from from hospitals, naval and_ military' the immediately surrounding terview authorities, the Japanese Consulate-tory, was reduced to a minimum.
General, and registered medical Whilst, it is dificult to trace the! practitioners. true! origin of cases, the fact that When the Shanghai office of the! the" first case appeared among re-National Quarantine Service suspend-Tate in the cholera season, ed its activities towards the end of support to the belief that November, the Department under-had times been normal Shanghat took the collection of information re-might have escaped cholera yet an-garding disease In the outlying areas other year and its transmission by cable to the Eastern Bureau of the League of 'Smallpox, which had assumed the'
Nations, Singapore, for inclusion in proportions of a minor -epidemic. at the Weekly Health Broadcast, the end of 1036, declined during the stimmer months'and did not reappear Work of Chemical Laboratory until December when two eases were During the emergency the labora~ tory was called upon to analyse and "Vaccinations for 1937 were 423, prepare numerous substances outside 454, an_ increase' of 114,113 over last the usual range, year's figures.
The residues from two bombs Measles which fell in- the Settlement were The occurrence of measles in found {o contain. white phosphorus epidemic. form in the Aulumn was and were of an incendiary type. The quite unusual, as the inighest incid Alling from a "dud" high explosive nce is normally in April, and must bomb which fell in the Settlement
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.